Drew Burkemper
Theology
In a Michigan courtroom in March of 1999, a wrinkled man wearing oversize glasses sits reclined in his chair, alternately wearing and chewing on the end of his glasses, as all around him people buzz with anticipation. This man had chosen to defend himself against a first-degree murder charge for the 1998 death of Thomas Youk. Youk’s death had been televised nationally on CBS’s news program “60 Minutes.” In July of 1998, the Michigan state Legislature had passed a law banning assisted suicide, and this is the first case testing the new law. The judge returns to his chair to read the jury’s decision. The jury finds the man, Dr. Jack Kevorkian, guilty of first-degree murder, and Kevorkian is sentenced to 10-25 years in prison.
Jack
Kevorkian was born in Pontiac, Michigan in 1928. The soon of Armenian immigrants, he was the middle child,
having one older sister and one younger sister. As a child, Kevorkian enjoyed playing outside with the
neighbors, reading, drawing, and listening to Jack Graney announce Cleveland
Indians baseball games on the radio.
His original career choice was that of a broadcaster, and he once
boasted that, "I'd have been a great one-better than Harwell," referring to
Hall of Fame Detroit Tigers broadcaster Ernie Harwell.1
School
came easily to Kevorkian, who often found himself in trouble in grade school
because he was bored. At Pontiac
High School Kevorkian did not participate in social or athletic clubs, but was
the recipient of a National Honor Society special award and a member of the
Chemistry-Physics club.2
Starting in the fall of 1945, Kevorkian attended the University of Michigan. He quickly finished his undergraduate degree and enrolled in the University’s Medical School. He graduated in 1952 and decided to specialize in pathology, the study of tissue and corpses to determine the cause of death.
From
1952 to 1956 Kevorkian worked photographing the eyes of dead and dying
patients. His goal was to
determine if a corollary existed between the look of an eyeball and the state
of a person, if they were truly dead or just in a coma. He published his work in a 1956 journal
article, “The Fundus Oculi and the Determination of Death.” His disturbing work earned him the
nickname “Doctor Death” from his peers.3
Kevorkian was an intern at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit when he formed his view on doctor-assisted suicide.4 He saw a helpless, immobile woman suffering from cancer and, in the 1993 book Appointment with Doctor Death by Michael Betzold, described his feelings as an awakening:
"The
poor wretch stared up at me with yellow eyeballs sunken in the atrophic
sockets. Her yellow teeth were
ringed by chapping and parched lips to form an involuntary, almost sardonic
‘smile’ of death. It seemed as
though she was pleading for help and death at the same time. Out of sheer empathy alone I could have
helped her die with satisfaction.
From that moment on, I was sure that doctor assisted euthanasia and
suicide are and always were ethical, no matter what anyone says or thinks."5
Kevorkian worked at several hospitals, many of which he was dismissed from, until the 1970s, when he quit his pathology career and moved to California. He produced a movie based on Handel’s “Messiah,” but the movie was a flop. He published a few articles in German medical journals, but remained out of work. In 1987, Kevorkian began advertising himself as a “death counselor.” In 1988, he built his first, self-proclaimed “suicide machine” from $30 worth of scrap metal and began his crusade for physician-assisted suicide that would make him a household name for Americans.
The
suicide machine was a simple concept for such a brilliant man. Once hooked up, a patient chose when to
end their life by pressing a button.
The first two patients of Kevorkian died by means of lethal injection of
potassium chloride, which stopped the heart, while the rest died after
receiving carbon monoxide through a gas mask.6
In
1990, Kevorkian sought publicity for his suicide machine through radio and
television advertisements. He also
ran an advertisement in a Detroit newspaper offering free assistance for anyone
wishing to kill himself or herself.
Immediately, the press caught on to this 62-year-old non-practicing
doctor. It was an article in
Newsweek that drove a Portland man to contact Dr. Kevorkian.7
Ronald
Adkins’ 54-year-old wife, Janet, was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease in
1989. She had voiced her desire to
die rather than, “put my family or myself through the agony of this terrible
disease.” Fulfilling his wife’s
wish, Ronald Adkins contacted Jack Kevorkian and arranged for the three to
meet. A forty-minute videotape of
the meeting was made, during which Janet said, “I’ve had enough.”8
On June 4, 1990, Janet Adkins ended her life in the back of Dr. Kevorkian’s 1968 Volkswagon van using his suicide machine. A first-degree murder charge was brought against Kevorkian in the state of Michigan. Michigan District Judge Gerald McNally dismissed the case after viewing the recorded conversation because the state of Michigan did not have any laws banning physician-assisted suicide at the time. Afterwards, Roland expressed his gratitude and relief for the ruling:
“I
and the family are very pleased and very grateful for the judge making the
decision that he did.”9
Since
performing his first assisted suicide, Kevorkian has gone on to help more than
100 patients die. They have ranged
in age from 27-82, with a variety of medical conditions: from Alzheimers to hip
pain, from Multiple Sclerosis to cancer, from arthritis and osteoporosis to
emphysema. Most of the deaths took
place in the back of Kevorkian’s van; all employed the use of the “suicide
machine.” Opponents to the deaths,
including several doctors, argued that Kevorkian’s patients still had
productive lives to live, and that Kevorkian failed to fully examine his
patients before performing his services.
Criticism was not able to slow Kevorkian, who continued his crusade for
a patient’s right to die until he encountered opposition from the courts.10
Kevorkian’s operation received a serious hit in 1997 when the Supreme Court ruled that the Constitution does not give a person the right to hasten a patient’s death unless the state where the action takes place allows assisted suicide. Kevorkian appealed the ruling several times, but the Supreme Court did not hear his case.
Kevorkian ignored the ruling and continued his practice, both in states that allowed assisted suicide and states that had banned it. The law caught up to him in his 1999 trial conviction for the murder of Mr. Youk, a 58-year-old sufferer of Lou Gehrig’s disease.
Dr. Kevorkian is
currently held at Thumb Correctional Facility in Lapeer, Michigan. While in jail, Kevorkian received a
humanitarian award for his work, which was accepted by the family of Thomas
Youk. He will be eligible for
parole in 2007, but has promised not to aid anyone else in dying.11
Many wonder what drove this one man in his quest for assisted suicide and patient’s rights. The answer is best summed up in a quote by Dr. Kevorkian to the National Press Club in July of 1996:
"Well, let's take what people think is a dignified death. Christ, was that a dignified death? Do you think it’s dignified to hang from wood with nails through your hands and feet bleeding, hanging for three or four days slowly dying, with people jabbing spears into your side, and people jeering you? Do you think that’s dignified? Not by a long shot. Had Christ died in my van with people around Him who loved Him, the way it was, it would be far more dignified. In my rusty van."12
(1) Appointment With Dr. Death. Michael Betzold. Troy, Michigan: Momentum Books Ltd. Pg 9.
(2) Betzold, pg. 9.
(3) "Jack Kevorkian." Internet. http://jack-kevorkian.biography.ms/. N. pag.
(4) Betzold, pg 10.
(5) Betzold, pg 10.
(6) "The Real Jack Kevorkian." International Task Force on Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide. Internet. http://www.iaetf.org/fctkev.htm. N. pag.
(7) Betzold, pg 36.
(8) "6.02) The case of Janet Adkins and Dr. Jack Kevorkian." Internet. http://www.togopeacefully.com/HISTORY.html. N. pag.
(9) "6.02) The case of Janet Adkins and Dr. Jack Kevorkian." N. pag.
(10) "The Real Jack Kevorkian." http://www.iaetf.org/fctkev.htm. N. Pag.
(11) "Michigan v. Jack Kevorkian: Dr. Death on Trial." Court TV Trial
Report. Internet. http://www.courttv.com/trials/kevorkian/062901_ctv.html. N. pag.
(12) Quote to National Press Club. Jack Kevorkian. Internet.
http://www.kevork.org/dign.htm. N. pag.